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October 1990 | November-December 1990 |
Golf Course Impact FeesState and City political leaders, two days before the primary election, announced their support of a policy of assessing new golf course project impact fees of some $100 million each and using the proceeds to build affordable housing. This is an attractive sounding proposal, but it raises some serious questions: (1) Will the Courts permit impact fees of this magnitude? Previous rulings have limited such assessments to defrayment of actual infrastructure costs created by the development involved. Fees based on profitability are defined as taxes and have to be levied through the taxation system, not as impact fees. (2) There is a great danger that such enormous fees will become the driving force behind land' use and zoning approvals as they were, for example, in the Aloha Motors Convention Center complex. This is known as selling zoning. Instead of good land use planning, land use would be determined by how much could be extracted from rich developers. Promising to use these payments for much-needed housing may make them politically attractive, but ignores all other factors involved in comprehensive planning. We would urge a very cautious approach to this pre-election proposal. It may not look so good after November. ******** Local Leagues will soon begin receiving more information and guides for this study. It is not too soon to indicate your interest in this study when it is ready to be launched. Arlene Ellis |
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